NEWS

ERSAT GGC Final Conference held in Prague on 26th November 2019

The ERSAT GGC consortium has organised Final Conference on Tuesday 26th November 2019. The event gathered 50 participants, including project consortium members and stakeholders from the rail industry, the aerospace sector and various research centres.

The first session of the event includes the welcomes form Carlo Des Dorides (GSA Executive Director) and Fabio Senesi (RFI ERTMS Program Manager), a general introduction of the project from Massimiliano Ciaffi (Project Coordinator) and an extensive summary of the Objectives and Challenges of the project presented by Salvatore Sabina (Technical Leader).

The second session was dedicated to the presentation of the work done in the technical work packages. A summary of the activities performed on Enhanced ERTMS Specification and Architecture (Fabio Pognante, HITACHI), Safety and Hazard Analysis of the Enhanced ERTMS Architecture (Francesco Sperandio, RINA), Track Survey and Track Classification (Omar Garcia Crespillo, DLR), Demonstration (Pietro Salvatori, Radiolabs)and Assessment of the Enhanced ERTMS architecture and of the Survey process and related toolset (Alessandro Basili, Tommaso Ghiara Bureau Veritas).

ERSAT GGC Final Conference finalized with the a proactive and instructive dialogue between the participants and the consortium where the results, upcoming activities and potential benefits for end-users were discussed together with the Main Reached Results & Closing Remarks presented by Salvatore Sabina and Daniel Lopour.

Perspective of space utilisation in the Italian Railways presentation in ESA SPACE4RAIL WORKSHOP

Massimiliano Ciaffi as project coordinator of ERSAT GGC presented the Perspective of space utilisation in the Italian Railways where the ERSAT GGC activity was mentioned within the global scope of the activity during the ESA SPACE4RAIL workshop that took place on 13th November 2019 at the European Space and Research Technology Centre (ESTEC).

TRACK CLASSIFICATION PRESENTATION AT WCRR 2019 TOKYO

From 29th October to 1st November 2019 some partners of ERSAT GGC participated in the Congress WCRR in Tokyo (12th World Congress on Railway Research), the world's largest international congress on railway research, founded by SNCF (France), DB AG (Germany), Trenitalia (Italy), RTRI (Japan), RSSB (UK), TTCI (USA) and UIC. During the event Massimiliano Ciaffi, project coordinator of ERSAT GGC presented the results of the activity related to “Classification of Railway tracks for applying enhanced ERTMS/ETCS Solutions Based on GNSS positioning.

ERSAT GGC First Exploitation Meeting

ERSAT GGC 1st Exploitation Meeting On the 6th of June, the ERSAT GGC project, coordinated by RFI and funded by GSA held an exploitation meeting with the participation of experts from the GSA, ESSP, Shift2Rail JU and the European Space Agency (ESA) as well as their on-going projects of STEMS and CAPRESE. ERSAT GGC consortia presented the main outcomes of the work packages related to the Enhanced ERTMS Architecture for the introduction of the GNSS technology and the Virtual Balise concept and the Safety and Hazard Analysis as well as the standards assessment of the Enhanced ERTMS Architecture for the introduction of the GNSS technology. The focal point of the workshop was the ‘Enhanced ERTMS Architecture for the introduction of the GNSS technology and Virtual Balice’ concept, which seeks to define the inputs for the evolution of the ERTMS standard to integrate GNSS technology.

This concept aims to create cost and efficiency benefits as it could substantially decrease the use of the physical balises normally utilized for train positioning. The Safety and Hazard analysis of the Enhanced ERTMS Architecture as well as the assessment of its compliance with the standards and norms were also discussed with the participants. Due to the potential complementarity between ERSAT GGC and CAPRESE/STEMS initiatives funded by ESA , NSL presented, during the meeting, their frameworks, scope, goals and structure.

ERSAT-GGC project presented at EU-US Working Group C on Next GNSS Generation

The ERSAT-GGC project was presented at the last meeting of the European Union and the United States Working Group C (EU-US WG-C) on next GNSS generation on the 20-23 May 2019 at the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen.
Omar Garcia Crespillo, from DLR (partner of the project), introduced the overall goals and context of ERSAT GGC on behalf of the consortium and showed the last developments within WP4 – Track Survey and Track Area Classification. The project was presented at both the Service Evolution and the Resilience Subgroup of the EU-US WG-C. For more information about the presentation, please contact Omar Garcia Crespillo.

During the time from the 20th until the 31th of May, one of the foreseen ERSTA_GGC measurement campaigns took place in the Spain line nº528, this line runs through the provinces of Badajoz and Córdoba, in the frame of WP4 of ERSAT-GGC project based on the characterization of a low-traffic regional line.

It is considered that the implementation of modern signalling system in this type of lines based on GNSS technology could be an interesting new approach for increasing the line performance, reliability and safety.

The data collected during the measurement campaign collects information to evaluate areas in the line in terms of multipath, satellite visibility and interferences, with the aim of classifying them as suitable/not suitable for placing virtual balises. The selected track section of 94 km is between Almorchón and Alhondiguilla stations. The selected rolling stock is a laboratory train from Adif (Talgo BT-02) which for ERSAT-GGC project, has been equipped with suitable GNSS devices to register all the required data that will be analyzed by the toolset developed within the project. The duration of 10 days of dynamic testing was based on covering different locations of the satellites in the orbits and running under different epoch conditions.

In the preparation and execution of the measurement campaign ADIF, INECO, IFFSTAR, DLR, and CEDEX were involved.

ERSAT GGC measurement campaigns took place in the Italian line Cagliari-San Gavino in Sardinia

During the week from the 8th until the 13th of April, one of the ERSAT GGC measurement campaigns took place in the Italian line Cagliari-San Gavino in Sardinia.
The aim of the collection of GNSS measurements is to perform the track area classification with respect to the presence of GNSS threats (i.e. multipath, NLOS and Interference), which is the main goal of WP4. During the measurement campaign week, where over 1700 km of data were recorded, some important requirements were taken into account in the definition of train runs schedule considering time repeatability and an adequate distribution of the train runs to cover different time slots along the day, including train runs during the night.

In the preparation and execution of the measurement campaign RFI, Trenitalia, DLR, Radiolabs and Hitachi Rail STS were involved. CEDEX and ADIF also participated to the campaign and are preparing together with INECO the next measurement campaign in Spain.

ERSAT GGC PROJECT PRESENTATION AT SPACE FOR INNOVATION IN RAIL EVENT

On 19th March 2019 partners of the project participated in the Event SPACE FOR INNOVATION IN RAIL organized by GSA, Shift2Rail and ERA, dedicated to the GNSS applications for rail. During the event Massimiliano Ciaffi, project coordinator of ERSAT GGC presented the progress of the project together with the main results already achieved and the next steps until the end of the project.

ERSAT GGC and Connection with new applications presentation at ION GNSS+ 2018

The ERSAT GGC project and the possible connections with new applications like driverless cars were presented by the ERSAT GGC project coordinator Massimiliano Ciaffi (RFI) during the ION GNSS+ 2018, the world’s largest technical meeting and showcases of GNSS technology, products and services. The presentation was included in the session dedicated to the Augmentations for High Performance and Safety Critical Applications

ERSAT GGC Project Presentation at INNOTRANS

On 19th September 2018, the ERSAT project has been presented during InnoTrans, the world’s largest trade fair focused on the rail transport.
The session was dedicated to the Satellite Technology for Railways, specifically focused on the EU R&I activities of STARS and ERSAT GGC projects. Jose Bertolin (UNIFE) presented the structure and the high-level objectives of the project together with a description of the main activities and challenge of the technical work packages of the project.

Presentation at FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY of Video-based system for characterization of GNSS reception along a railway line basis for ERSAT GGC development

Rihab Hmida (IFSTTAR) has participated to the Signalling - Safety, Security and Train Localization session of the Fourth International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance, in Sitges, Spain the 6th of sept. 2018. She has presented the FPGA implementation of a video - based system devoted to the characterization of GNSS reception along a railway line. She has shown how the chosen architecture allows the control of the sensors as well as the synchronization, the processing and the fusion of the data coming from the different devices and how the tool can help the ERSAT GGC project to detect non-line-of-sight signal reception.

ERSAT GGC project dissemination at RailLive congress

The ERSATGGC project was mentioned during the RailLive congress on 18th April, within the presentation “Developing GNSS for the rail industry”. Juliette Marais mentioned the work carried out in the ERSAT GGC project as one of the ongoing activities participating to the introduction of GNSS in the railways during her presentation which tackled the Industry update: objectives and benefits of GNSS-based solutions for rail; the understanding of the implications of GNSS for the rail industry, ongoing activities and remaining issues/next short-term steps.

On 27th March 2018, the ERSATGGC project has been presented during the UIC Global Conference on Signalling, within the session “Game Changer: The synergy between Level 3 and Satellite integration”.
The session was dedicated to discussing the current technical trends and main projects for the development Level 3 together with the opportunities and constraints of the parallel integration of Satellite based facilities, for both geo-localisation and data transmission. Massimiliano Ciaffi, ERSAT GGC project coordinator, presented the structure, objectives and expectations of the ERSAT GGC project, as one of the trend project and Initiative which deals with the integration of satellite requirements into the new ERTMS TSI.

KOM (12 January Prague)

The first kick-off meeting of the ERSAT GGC project took place in Prague, in the presence of all the experts in the consortium. In particular, each WP Leader presented the work to be done for his WP and the economic-financial aspect of the project was discussed.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No: 776039